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This article examines the history of family reunification in France. This administrative procedure allowed foreign workers to bring their spouses and children with them to France. The article explores the origins and functioning of family reunification before 1976, a year that is often presented, incorrectly, as the date of its creation. In particular, it is necessary to determine how families were selected. A procedure for introducing families was set up in the 1920s to encourage the arrival of foreign families, in a context of fear of demographic crisis. This complex procedure was based upon exacting criteria, particularly in terms of housing, and was regulated through circulars. This article shows that in order to select families judged, on the basis of their origin, to be desirable, the French administration varied the stringency with which the official criteria were applied, despite the fact that such discrimination was forbidden by law. Thus, in the 1960s, it was only Algerian families who were subject to real control before entering the country, while most families were able to have their status regularized after the fact. In 1976, the right to family reunification was officially recognized, but controls on non-European families became more stringent, whereas those families thought capable of assimilation enjoyed freedom of movement because of European integration.